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A tweet posted by Holly Hegeman of PlaneBusiness.com has set off rumours that American Airlines is set to shake up AAdvantage elite levels…and not in a good way. The tweet suggests that we could be set to see new elite levels added to the AAdvantage program, specifically at the top-level of the pyramid.
Interestingly the American Airlines twitter account chose to post a comment to this tweet and dis nothing to deny/dismiss the rumour:
It’s worth pointing out that what American Airlines considers to be “bigger and better for our customers” doesn’t necessarily correlate with what most of their customers actually think – that’s just airline talk for “we’re doing whatever we feel like and we’re just going to say that it’s what our customers want”.
Over on Flyertalk, JonNYC, a normally reliable source for American Airlines news, has this to say:
I’d expect the majority of EPs here will be displeased. I do consider the rumor to be highly credible
AAdvantage Elite Status As It Stands
Currently American Airlines’ AAdvantage program has the least number of elite levels and the simplest qualifying criteria out of the three legacy US Airlines:
To earn top-level Executive Platinum Status a customer needs to earn 100,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) or fly 120 segments in a calendar year while the next level down, Platinum status, is a distance away and is earned at 50,000 EQM or 60 segments.
American Airlines has only recently announced a series of changes to the AAdvantage program some of which have changed how flyers earn EQM. On American Airlines flights it’s possible to earn up to 3 EQM per mile flown….
…while on partner airlines, although the rules vary from airline to airline, it’s possible to earn anything between zero and 1.5 EQM per mile flown:
Cathay Pacific AAdvantage Earnings Chart
American Airlines also has a status level called “Concierge Key” which is given out to American Airlines’ higher spenders. This is an unofficial AAdvantage Status level for which there are no published criteria (we do know it’s primarily based on how much is spent with the airline) but doesn’t come with too many of its own privileges – Concierge Key members don’t trump Executive Platinum members for upgrades for example.
What Do The Other Legacy Carriers Offer?
United Airlines Premier Status has 4 elite levels for which customers can qualify by flying a set number of miles or segments while at the same time spending a set amount of dollars with United (unless you fall into a category for whom the dollar spend is waived).
On top of these four levels, United Airlines has a fifth tier, Global Services, for which there are no official published metrics…but we do know that it’s aimed at high spenders. Global Services is an official MileagePlus level and Global Service flyers are at the top of the United Mileage Plus food chain – unlike their American Airlines Concierge Key counterparts, trump other United elite levels when it comes to priority on upgrade and standby lists.
Delta’s Medallion Program looks similar to United’s MilagePlus program (probably because United copies most of whatever Delta does) although, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t have an equivalent level to Global Services.
While Delta’s program has four official status levels, just like United MileagePlus, their top level requires a minimum of 125,000 flown miles or 140 segments.
What Can We Expect From AAdvantage
The rumours discuss new levels (plural) so it would appear that American Airlines is considering adding a couple of new levels to the AAdvantage program.
The first logical level for American Airlines to add would be at the 75,000 miles (to mimic Delta Platinum and United Premier Platinum status) and it’s interesting to note (with hindsight) that the airline gave itself room to create exactly such a level when they announced the new revenue based program late last year.
We already know that at some point in late 2016 the earning rates on American Airlines will be based on ticket price and that they’ll look like this:
- 5 miles/U.S. dollar – AAdvantage member
- 7 miles/U.S. dollar – Gold
- 8 miles/U.S. dollar – Platinum
- 11 miles/U.S. dollar – Executive Platinum
That gap between Platinum and Executive Platinum is just crying out for another level.
So if American creates a new level at 75,000 miles what other level could we see?
To my mind there are three realistic possibilities:
- Concierge Key becomes an official level, like United Global Services, but is still only attained based on opaque criteria.
- Concierge Key becomes and official level and is set at a level above where Executive Platinum currently stands – possibly at 125,000 EQM.
- Executive Platinum remains the top-level of the AAdvantage program but qualifying criteria are moved upwards – possibly to 125,000 EQM and 140 segments (to mimic Delta Diamond status).
If I was to guess, and clearly I’m about to, I’d suggest that the first two possibilities I’ve mentioned are the more likely. Like I’ve already said, the rumours have talked about new levels and moving the Executive Platinum qualifying criteria isn’t strictly the creation of a new level.
I suspect that American’s push towards a more dollar-based loyalty program would see them wanting to implement the first option I suggested but I’m not sure they have the guts to upset as many people as they would if they went ahead with that change.
I’m going to suggest that option 2 is the more likely change we’ll see as well as a new 75,000 EQM level.
Bottom Line
None of these scenarios are good for a flyer like me (who earns somewhere between 100,000 – 110,000 EQM per year) and they would also bring into question the merits to AAdvantage Lifetime status.
Lifetime Platinum status would almost certainly be devalued to the point where a lot of flyers wouldn’t find it that useful although, if it kept OneWorld Sapphire status, it would still have merit for those who do a lot of international travel.
If a new top-level is created and if it is set at 125,000 EQM it won’t be that big of a hit to the Executive Platinum population as a whole. The new EQM earning criteria (outlined above) mean that 125,000 EQM won’t be as hard to attain as they would have been in the past so there may not be too much of an outcry at this change.
If, on the other hand, a new top-level is created and is either only attainable if a customer meets some opaque, unpublished criteria or if it’s set at a level above 125,000 EQM, then American Airlines can expect quite a big outcry.
It’s going to be interesting to see what we find out in the coming days and weeks.
If Executive Platinum status (EXP) will longer sit atop the AAdvantage tree what will happen to unlimited domestic upgrades? What will happen to all the fees that are currently waived for EXPs? Will EXP still have OneWorld Emerald status or will it be demoted to OneWorld Sapphire? There are a lot of questions left to answer….let’s hope American Airlines is a bit more forthcoming with information in the coming days.
